Schiavo Memo Indicts The Media...Again.

It is now common knowledge that the now-infamous Schiavo memo originated from Mel Martinez (R) staffer Brian Darling, and was not yet another example of Democratic dirty tricks. Naturally, the left is missing the point of this situation and running around saying "Ha! It wasn't us this time."
But the way the memo was covered by the main-stream media is yet another example of either it's irresponsibility (if you're an optimist), or blatant bias against the Republicans (if you're a pessimist).

John Hinderaker, writing for the Weekly Standard, summarizes the situation accurately:

The Democrats were thus not guilty, as many of us believed, of creating the memo as a dirty trick. The central claim of many Democrats, newspapers, and commentators--that the memo was the product of the Republican congressional leadership and constituted an official "GOP talking points memo"--has likewise been proved false. It was this characterization that justified the memo's use as an indictment of congressional Republicans' motives in the Schiavo case. If the memo had been correctly described from the beginning, as the inept product of a freshman senator's aide, with no responsibility for Republican political strategy, which may not have been read by a single Republican senator, it is questionable whether it would even have merited a news story.

Should it be any suprise that the media ran with the memo and attibuted it to sources it had not yet verified? Given Dan Rather's recent troubles I would have guessed "yes" two weeks ago, but this most recent case of irresponsible journalism proves they have learned absolutely nothing.